


A Witch's Best Friend

by Laragh



Series: The Kitten Board Challenge Collection [2]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Bonding, F/F, Fluff, Set between s4 and s5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-02
Updated: 2012-09-02
Packaged: 2019-09-29 11:46:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17202860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laragh/pseuds/Laragh
Summary: Willow just really loves Miss Kitty, okay?





	A Witch's Best Friend

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted @ [The Kitten Board](http://thekittenboard.net/thekitt/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10198&hilit=challenge#p705663) in September 2012 for the 2012 Summer Challenge: 2001 Redux with the following requirements:
> 
>  
> 
> _1) Takes place during the summer. In true Sunnydale fashion, this means no baddies._  
>  2) There must be some sort of party.  
> 3) All of the Scoobies (including Spike!) must appear, at least in a walk-on role. It would be a crummy party if they weren't all there, wouldn't it?  
> 4) Willow must babble, but you may not use the word "babble." Or "ramble." Or any other synonym. Show it, ladies and germs.  
> 5) Miss Kitty must appear, because she's adorable.  
> 6) There must be a dare.

“Will, honey, I think that’s enough.”  
  
  
Willow spun around, a dangerous activity to do when you were standing on top of a chair trying to hang a banner from the ceiling, but managed to just stumble once and not actually fall.  
  
  
“Are you sure? Like really sure? Because I want it to be perfect. It needs to be perfect. I mean, she deserves it to be perfect. She does, she really, really does, like so much, so, so much. She’s helped us, god has she helped us, changed our life really, and been so nice and sweet and she deserves to be welcomed! I mean, she just showed up and la, la, la, we didn’t even introduce her to anyone or make her feel like she even mattered!”  
  
  
Tara took a long, slow breath, then plucked Miss Kitty Fantastico from the ground as she walked past and nuzzled into her leg.  
  
  
“Honey,” Tara said calmly, scratching Miss Kitty’s ears to produce a purr, “She’s a kitty cat. And I’m sure she appreciates you throwing a welcome party for her, but let’s not go overboard, okay?”  
  
  
Willow jumped down from the chair and looked at Tara sheepishly.  
  
  
“The catnip cookies were too much, wasn’t it?”  
  
  
Tara glanced at the plate of ‘cookies’ stacked high on the table.  
  
  
“Well–”  
  
  
“Or the playlist,” Willow continued, biting the skin around her thumb nervously, “It’s the playlist, isn’t it?”  
  
  
“Playlist?” Tara asked, at a loss to the latest cat-inspired idea her girlfriend had come up with.  
  
  
Willow walked over to her laptop and pointed on screen.  
  
  
“'What’s New, Pussycat', 'Look What the Cat Dragged In', 'Stray Cat Strut'. You know, cat songs.”  
  
  
“Cat songs,” Tara nodded, wondering if Willow had accidentally hit her head on patrol and neglected to tell her, “Of course.”  
  
  
Willow could tell Tara was looking at her strangely and dropped her gaze.  
  
  
“I just wanted it to be special,” she said, somewhat lamely, “Since, you know, we have the space.”  
  
  
Willow’s parents had left for a summer tour, leaving the whole house free for them to enjoy until school started back again. They’d been taking ample advantage of the space in the few days of being alone they’d had, but had spent the entire afternoon preparing for the ‘Welcome Miss Kitty’ party Willow had become hell-bent on having, to the point of obsession.  
  
  
Tara wasn’t sure why Willow was going to so much trouble, but could tell it was important, so went along with her.  
  
  
“It will be, sweetie. I finished those balloons you asked me to blow up.”  
  
  
Willow’s face lit up and she started to bounce on the balls of her feet.  
  
  
“I’m going to tie them around the place with yarn!”  
  
  
She scurried off to do just that and Tara sat down on the sofa with Miss Kitty, playing with her.  
  
  
“Your other mommy is a little crazy. But we love her, yes we do. Yes we do, we love her lots.”  
  
  
The kitten gently pawed Tara’s face, oblivious to all the fuss going on around them in her name. After a little while, a knock came to the door and Willow skidded back into the room in a panic.  
  
  
“Here! People are here! Turn on the music, quick!”  
  
  
Tara left the kitten down to roam free and leaned over to try and turn the music off, but Willow’s laptop may as well have been a NASA control panel.  
  
  
“Um, Willow…”  
  
  
Willow, getting even more flustered, came over to switch roles.  
  
  
“Answer the door, answer the door!”  
  
  
Tara diligently went off to answer the door, and smiled shyly at Xander and Anya when she opened it.  
  
  
“H-hi. Come in.”  
  
  
“See, Xander, I told you they’d be clothed,” Anya commented as she walked in on Xander’s arm, rolling her eyes, “And I’m the one who doesn’t understand social cues.”  
  
  
“Can’t blame a guy for hoping when he’s invited to a ‘pussy party’,” Xander mumbled under his breath, before brightening when he saw the plate on the table, “Ooh, cookies!”  
  
  
Tara was blushing and wishing she hadn’t picked up the first part of his sentence, but did manage to grab his hand before the cookie reached his mouth.  
  
  
“Don’t,” she said with a serious look, “Trust me.”  
  
  
Xander dropped the cookie, unsure what he was saved from but thankful nonetheless.  
  
  
Anya pranced into the room and looked around at the decorations curiously.  
  
  
“I’ve never been to a cat party before. Do we cook them?” she asked them, hoping she could be helpful, “I have an old family recipe for a delicious cat stew.”  
  
  
Willow looked absolutely horrified, so Xander tugged his girlfriend away before a ‘cat-fight’ broke out. He grinned at his own thought and sat Anya down on his knee.  
  
  
“We just listen to music…and don’t eat the cookies apparently.”  
  
  
“The drinks are safe,” Tara whispered to them on the way to comfort Willow.  
  
  
Buffy and Giles arrived separately though not far apart over the next little while, Giles out of his comfort zone, though Willow had insisted as many friends as possible were there. Tara played the part of hostess getting everyone drinks and finding some edible snacks.  
  
  
Willow followed her around, keen to make sure the guests were all properly attended to.  
  
  
“Do you think it’s going well?” she asked when they were alone in the kitchen, her eyes vulnerable, “Do you think…do you think Miss Kitty likes it?”  
  
  
Tara opted not to point out that Miss Kitty had taken home in the back yard when the music had started, instead just gently rubbing her back.  
  
  
“I’m sure she loves it.”  
  
  
There was another knock at the door and Tara went to get it, pressing a kiss to Willow’s cheek on the way.  
  
  
She didn’t Willow her touch the spot she’d kissed, or the few tears that were wiped away after.  
  
  
“M-Mr. Spike,” Tara said cautiously as the opened the door to the bleached-blonde vampire.  
  
  
“Ms. Maclay,” Spike greeted cordially, but got impatient quickly, “What’s a vamp got to do to get an invite these days?”  
  
  
Tara remained hesitant.  
  
  
“Um…”  
  
  
Willow appeared a second later, concerned when Tara hadn’t returned.  
  
  
“Baby, what’s wro–” she started, then scowled when she saw Spike, “What the frilly hell are you doing here?”  
  
  
“Heard there’s a party,” Spike replied with a nonchalant nod, “I was told there’d be kittens.”  
  
  
Willow’s eyes narrowed.  
  
  
“What do you want with my kitten?”  
  
  
“A man can’t have a love for the fuzzies?” Spike asked in a mock-hurt tone.  
  
  
Willow crossed her arms over her chest and stood in front of Tara protectively.  
  
  
“You’re not touching my kitten.”  
  
  
Spike decided it was probably best not to get on the wrong side of a witch by stealing her kitten for poker, but couldn’t say that was the only reason he’d called over as he tried to look around the door into the room.  
  
  
“Calm down, love,” he said, dropping the bud of his cigarette and stepping on it, “Slayer here? Could do with someone to torment.”  
  
  
Willow threw her hands in the air, much too wound up to be dealing with Spike.  
  
  
“Oh for god sake, come in then, but don’t touch Miss Kitty or me and Tara will show you the dusty end of our powers!”  
  
  
Spike grinned and forced his way past them, straight to lean against the bookshelf near where Buffy was standing, eating from a large bowl of chips.  
  
  
“No boy-toy tonight?”  
  
  
Buffy’s immediate response was to ignore Spike, but was happy to shove Riley’s new dedication to the cause in his face.  
  
  
“He’s reading some of Giles’s books,” she answered smugly, “Wants to be more involved with the slaying.”  
  
  
Spike scoffed, but looked as if his pride had been hurt, though didn’t get a chance to dwell as Willow suddenly burst into the room, eyes wide in alarm.  
  
  
“Tara! We didn’t invite her kitten friends!”  
  
  
Tara went to her and discreetly rub her back.  
  
  
“She doesn’t have kitten friends, sweetie.”  
  
  
“Well then we should help find her some!” Willow all but yelled, causing everyone in the room to go completely silent.  
  
  
Willow looked around at the eyes of her, some of concern, some of pity and started to yell again.  
  
  
“Why are you all looking at me like I’m insane! I’m not insane! I just want her to feel welcome, okay? I just want to feel like she’s important, because she is, she’s so important! More important than anything in the whole world, more important than school even! And none of you even realise how important and wonderful and precious and lovely she is and it sucks, it just sucks, and it’s all my fault, all totally and completely my fault because _I_ didn’t make a big deal when I should of and _I_ made it seem unimportant and god, why am I so stupid, why am I always so stupid, stupid, stupid!”  
  
  
Xander stood up and put a tentative hand on Willow’s shoulder.  
  
  
“Willow, it’s just a kitten.”  
  
  
Willow shrugged his hand off aggressively.  
  
  
“She’s not just a kitten, she’s the love of my life!”  
  
  
Everyone but Tara looked completely baffled.  
  
  
“Uh, Willow, I know I’ve attracted a few demons in my time, but even I think that’s a little weird,” Xander said, before clearing his throat when a girlfriend-sized glare was shot his way, “Demons nice, demons pretty.”  
  
  
“I don’t mean the cat, I mean Tara!” Willow all but spat out, her tone ashamed and humiliated.  
  
  
“Sweetie?” Tara asked gently, brushing some hair from Willow’s eyes.  
  
  
Willow could barely bring herself to look in Tara’s eyes. It had been so easy to fool herself about why she’d wanted this party so badly and had now so easily fallen apart.  
  
  
“I treated you like dirt when we first got together. Kept you a secret, and hid you. And you were so nice about it, even then. ‘I am, you know. Yours.’,” she said, sniffing back a hit of emotion to stop herself from crying, “You deserve to be shown off and adored. And I do, now, I do, I want everyone to know. I’ll shout it from the rooftops.”  
  
  
Xander and Buffy exchanged perplexed looks, though Giles and Anya seemed to have figured it out. Giles was kind enough to keep his mouth shut. Anya wasn’t.  
  
  
“The party was a guise to ease her guilt over mistreating Tara,” she explained to the room, proud to have figured something out.  
  
  
Willow looked even more humiliated then, but Tara paid no attention to anyone but her.  
  
  
“Willow, I love you. I’ve always loved you. I always will love you. Don’t beat yourself up about things in the past.”  
  
  
Buffy was still more than a little confused as to what was happening, but knew a lovey-dovey moment when she saw one and started to make her way towards the door.  
  
  
“Well, that’s the sound of a freshly risen vamp waiting for my stake to dust him.”  
  
  
“Wait along, Slayer, there’s some nasties out these parts,” Spike said, following her a little too eagerly, “You need some Big Bad to protect you.”  
  
  
Buffy didn’t seem quite as enthused but didn’t protest. Giles followed suit and went to put his jacket back on.  
  
  
“Yes, I’m afraid I have some rather important…scribing to attend to. The work of a Watcher never ends. Lovely tea, Tara, thank you.”  
  
  
He offered a courteous wave as he departed, leaving just Xander and Anya with the other two who were clearly sharing a moment.  
  
  
Anya didn’t quite understand why she should leave, but wasn’t all that excited about the cat party anyway.  
  
  
“Do you want to go have sex in your ice-cream truck?” she asked, turning to Xander.  
  
  
Xander opened his mouth to speak, then promptly shut it again and jumped up eagerly.  
  
  
“Bye guys. Uh, great party.”  
  
  
“I thought you said it was wrong to lie, Xander…” Anya said to him as he pulled her out, the rest of the sentence lost as the door slammed shut leaving them alone.  
  
  
Tara sat on the nearby sofa and pulled Willow down, then gently took both of her hands.  
  
  
“I don’t even think about that stuff anymore,” she said softly, “I just think about us.”  
  
  
Willow wanted to believe that – if Tara could forgive her, maybe she could forgive herself. She looked around at the ridiculously decorated room and shook her head at how absurd she’d been acting.  
  
  
“We didn’t even get to the party games.”  
  
  
Tara smiled.  
  
  
“You organised party games?”  
  
  
Willow nodded lamely, knowing she deserved the years of teasing she’d probably get.  
  
  
“Pin the tail on the kitty…Celebrity, but with famous cats, you know Garfield and stuff. I even had a copy of Cats: The Musical shipped out so I could set up a screening.”  
  
  
Tara squeezed her hand warmly.  
  
  
“We can still watch it.”  
  
  
Willow fixed her eyes back on Tara and felt herself falling in love with her all over again. There was no pity or scorn or pity or anything but kindness in those eyes.  
  
  
“Probably wouldn’t have worked out anyway. Scooby party games always devolve to ‘truth or dare’.”  
  
  
“What’s that?” Tara asked, happy to see Willow happier than she had all day.  
  
  
“You’ve never played truth or dare?” Willow asked, her previous worries forgotten in place of disbelief, which only grew as Tara shook her head, “Oh. Well it’s a game…where you either choose truth or dare, and you have to answer a question, truthfully, hence ‘Truth’ or do whatever the person dares you to do, hence ‘Dare’.”  
  
  
Tara considered that a moment.  
  
  
“That sounds like it could get a lot of people in a lot of trouble.”  
  
  
“Yeah, no kidding,” Willow replied with a small laugh, then looked at Tara seriously, “Truth or dare?”  
  
  
Tara sensed she was supposed to answer this a certain way, and figured it out from the intent look in her girlfriend’s eyes.  
  
  
“Truth.”  
  
  
Willow never dropped her gaze, though her heart was pounding in her chest.  
  
  
“Do you mean it? You don’t resent me for…all of that stuff?”  
  
  
“Not for a second,” Tara answered genuinely, “Never. Not even when it was happening. You needed time. I had it. I’d wait forever.”  
  
  
Willow blinked away a few tears and felt that worry lift from her shoulders. She accepted the warm hug that followed and the kisses to her cheeks before Tara smiled at her.  
  
  
“Truth or dare?”  
  
  
“Truth,” Willow answered promptly and felt a nose nuzzle.  
  
  
“Do you love me?” Tara asked softly, her tone indicating she knew and believed the answer already.  
  
  
“With all my heart,” Willow replied, taking her turn to kiss Tara’s cheeks, “You’re my girl.”  
  
  
Tara kissed Willow softly.  
  
  
“Proudly so.”  
  
  
Willow kissed Tara again, addicted to the feel of those lips on hers. She reached out to shut her laptop and stop the ridiculous music from playing, then started to push Tara down onto the sofa to lie on top of her.  
  
  
She took a moment to look at Tara’s flushed features and leaned down so their faces were touching.  
  
  
“Truth or dare?” she asked breathlessly.  
  
  
Tara felt her lips trembling having Willow so close.  
  
  
“D-Dare.”  
  
  
Willow, feeling a boldness she rarely had, sat back on her heels and pulled the two sides of her shirt apart.  
  
  
“I dare you to make wild, passionate love to me right here, right now.”  
  
  
Tara’s eyes filled with lust, and she sat up to pull Willow’s shirt from her completely and push her onto her back. They both became instantly distracted by deep, heavy kisses, lost in each other.  
  
  
So lost that they didn’t notice Miss Kitty had taken refuge from the cold in the now thankfully quiet room, ignoring all of the trinkets and paraphernalia that she could entertain herself for hours with – but none of that was as interesting, apparently, as Tara’s back, which she jumped on top of and started clawing at.  
  
  
Tara broke the kiss and looked behind herself in surprise, then back at Willow.  
  
  
“I don’t think Miss Kitty wants us to do this.”  
  
  
Willow picked the cat up from Tara’s back and gently tossed her down to the floor.  
  
  
“Miss Kitty, there’s your playground,” she said, then slid her hands down Tara’s arms with a salacious grin, “Miss Maclay, you’re mine.”


End file.
